Construction
Project management
The Construction skill turns Nexma into a project-management platform for built infrastructure. It models phases, activities, resources, and dependencies, then schedules them under capacity and budget. This domain trades geometry for time — the organizing structure is the dependency network, not the spatial network.
What this skill models
The ontology captures a project plan with the entity types, link types, and constraints a project controls lead expects.
- Entity types.
Project,Phase,Activity,Resource,Material,CostItem,Risk, andSchedule. Each carries typed properties — duration, cost, crew size, material quantity. - Link types.
TaskDependency(finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, start-to-finish),ResourceAllocation,MaterialRequirement, andCostAssignment. - Key constraints. Schedule feasibility under resource capacity; budget caps per phase; safety-clearance rules between concurrent activities; and weather windows for outdoor work.
The ontology ships the reference data a planner needs: PMBOK process areas, RSMeans cost defaults where licensed, and OSHA safety-clearance tables.
What Jax can do
Jax reasons about schedules because the Skill binds its capabilities to this ontology.
- Generate schedules. "Schedule this project assuming two crews, six-day weeks, and weather windows from the local forecast. Hold the budget under $4.2M." Jax decomposes phases into activities from a template library if you have no WBS.
- Level resources with calendar-aware leveling so no crew is double-booked.
- Run critical-path analysis with float reporting and risk-weighted alternatives.
- Roll up material take-off from drawings against unit costs.
- Audit safety clearances between concurrent activities on the same site.
Critical-path and resource-leveling passes run through the Nexma MathEngine, writing the recomputed schedule back to the world model so completion dates and crew utilization update the moment Jax finishes.
Tip: Fix crew counts and the working calendar before asking Jax to level. Leveling shifts work to fit capacity, so pinning the available resources first keeps the critical path stable across reruns.
Constraints and standards
The skill enforces the rules a construction plan must satisfy to be executable.
| Concern | Rule enforced | Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule logic | Dependencies and lags honored | PMBOK 7th edition |
| Resource limits | Leveling within crew capacity | Project-controls practice |
| Budget | Caps enforced per phase | RSMeans cost basis |
| Safety | Clearances between activities | OSHA 1926 (US) |
| Terminology | Standard project vocabulary | ISO 21500 |
Export targets include Microsoft Project XML, Primavera P6 XER, and CSV from Project to Export.
Out of scope today: BIM model authoring (IFC consumed inbound, not authored), fabrication-shop drawings, and subcontractor-procurement workflows.
Where to go next
- Logistics — scheduling under capacity for moving fleets.
- Skills overview — the full catalog.
- Operations capabilities — how schedules drive field work.
- Nexma MathEngine — the solver behind critical path and leveling.